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Re: To sexy for church

There's probably no more contentious - and probably no more unimportant - issue in the church today than what music we use and how it is played. It's a sad reflection on how we have remade the worship service into our own image - geared to our own liking - as if WE were the ones that mattered. Church would be a whole lot simpler if it wasn't for all the flawed humans packing the pews each Sunday. But then, I suppose that's why we need a Savior, and why this time of year should find us very thankful indeed.

Re: To sexy for church

Yeah, something very similar happen to me at a Catholic church I was going to. Their worship music was very contemporary- pianist throwing in 7s and 9s all over the place. I played the melody of the song very straight with very conservative embellishment (not improvisation) and the priest tells the music director not to have the saxophonist again. I was seriously ticked. I go to a Lutheran church now and they love a little Bach on my soprano. I'm happy.

Re: To sexy for church

Some people are so stupid (not saying your priest is) they think the name itself is nasty. "Sax" sounds a lot like "sex" after all. Tell your pastor that the instrument is actually the saxophone and named after a real person. You can also tell him/her a little of the history and that the sax is played in major orchestras around the world.

Re: To sexy for church

Originally Posted by vonbraig

A couple of Sundays ago I played Amazing Grace really straight on my tenor. After Mass the priest told me I couldn't play sax in church because it made the congregation think about sex. Needless to say I'm looking for a new place to worship.

Re: To sexy for church

I would find a new church. I mean, really? I don't think God cares about any instrument played in His house, and if it makes the people think sinfully, well that's their problem. The people at my church WANT me to play sax or clarinet in church. But I'm happy working the soundboard.

"By seven o'clock the orchestra has arrived---no thin five piece affair but a pit full of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and high drums." - F. Scott Fitzgerald ; The Great Gatsby

Re: To sexy for church

I was joking before. But here's my sincere take on this.

First, always remember that good people can be wrong. It doesn't make them less good, it just means they are human.

Next, make sure you are putting the sacred before the sax. Make sure you are in the right place where you are supposed to be to worship. Does the service fill you with spirit and soul? And do you truly believe to your core what is being communicated in that service? If you cannot answer yes to these questions, then that is not a truly sacred place for you. So your sax playing cannot be sacred either in that place. And this is the reason you leave a church, not because some clergy says something you don't like.

And the most important thing to do is to pray. This is about playing sacred sax. So talk to the Divine about playing sacred sax in his house. Anytime I do this, I am always shown the path to take. I have every faith that you too will be shown the way to go and it will better than before.

Re: To sexy for church

First, always remember that good people can be wrong. It doesn't make them less good, it just means they are human.

Next, make sure you are putting the sacred before the sax. Make sure you are in the right place where you are supposed to be to worship. Does the service fill you with spirit and soul? And do you truly believe to your core what is being communicated in that service? If you cannot answer yes to these questions, then that is not a truly sacred place for you. So your sax playing cannot be sacred either in that place. And this is the reason you leave a church, not because some clergy says something you don't like.

And the most important thing to do is to pray. This is about playing sacred sax. So talk to the Divine about playing sacred sax in his house. Anytime I do this, I am always shown the path to take. I have every faith that you too will be shown the way to go and it will better than before.

Unless someone is playing really crassly, I defy anyone to close their eyes and say ,"this guy's playing is filled with the spirit and that guy's is not". And this thread is about other people's perceptions of someone else's playing. For that matter, someone "filled with the spirit" could probably be so filled and yet out of control that they sound like they're warming up for a gig on Baltimore's "The Block".

____________________________________________________ You can't blow it if you haven't lived it.

Re: To sexy for church

Originally Posted by gary

Unless someone is playing really crassly, I defy anyone to close their eyes and say ,"this guy's playing is filled with the spirit and that guy's is not". And this thread is about other people's perceptions of someone else's playing. For that matter, someone "filled with the spirit" could probably be so filled and yet out of control that they sound like they're warming up for a gig on Baltimore's "The Block".

I'm not sure how what Gary says here relates to what I said above. But I agree with what he is saying. Only the player, and the Lord, know what is in the player's heart.

Again, don't let one bad experience with one clergy make you change churches. Choose the church based on sacred things; spirit, faith, belief, and your relationship with the Lord. I believe that if you are where you are supposed to be, you will find the path to use your talent.

Re: To sexy for church

Originally Posted by hakukani

Sorry, I can't help this, but I keep hearing:I'm ....too sexy for my church, too sexy for my church...too sexy...
But seriously, I think you need to take up a collection and buy the priest a clue, because he doesn't seem to own one.

HAHAHAHAHA!

Anyhow: We're off to church today for a once in a blue moon experience of God etc. I do hope my daughter manages to control herself. That is my main prayer, going in.

If someone does anything remotely sexy with a saxophone (or anything else) that will be an unlooked-for bonus.

I think in a spirit of Christian charity we should perhaps give the priest a break and assume he was joking.

"The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions."

Re: To sexy for church

The reeds you were playing on: we they filed or defiled? :-)

I once explained to a coworker who was a conservative Christian that, as I viewed it, the choir director at the nearby Christian College and I "spoke the same language: music." It's just that I "spoke" in a different "dialect" and "I have a heavy accent."

Re: To sexy for church

....and next you will tell me that Jesus associated with prostitutes.

Sorry, but the priest is a twit. Unless someone actually told him they thought of sex during Amazing Grace, how would he know? By the comment, we now know what the priest was thinking about. I would have actually challenged him at the time but alas, he may have lost a soul.